So far as architecture is concerned, therefore, the 19th century is full of interesting suggestions and experiments, but on the whole it is barren. A contribution during this century, however, which is decisive for the future, is the increasing development of the technique of building. By the middle of the century, iron made its appearance as a material with properties revolutionizing the art of building, and a short time thereafter came cement, a new and extremely easily worked building material; finally these materials were combined into reinforced concrete, a combination which seems to herald a complete revolution in architecture.
During this period the lead in architectural development on the Continent passed more and more from France to Central Europe. France, however, still retained her reputation as the keeper of the academic architectonic traditions, and in reality she still re tained the lead at the beginning of the century. The architecture of the Napoleonic empire, or the so-called Empire style, is pre dominantly decorative in character. It does not aim in the first place at the solution of a certain practical building problem, but at the creation of a monument for the glorification of the empire. Just as Napoleon based his court ceremonials on Roman models, so these monuments seek to emulate the antique, whether they appear in the form of a "temple of glory," such as the Madeleine church, or as triumphal arches. However, in the latter erections and especially in l'Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile by Jean Francois Chalgrin (1739-1810 can be traced the last appearance of the noble tradition of French classical architecture (Porte St. Denis by Francois Blondel, etc.).
The leading architects of the Napoleonic era and the architects mostly employed by the court were Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre Fontaine (1762-1853). The works of these two col laborators show that they were influenced by the Adam brothers and, like them, they have made their works known in wide circles by their brilliant books of engravings. They have exercised a strong influence on the contemporary Continental taste especially by their designs for interior decoration and furniture. The style created by Percier and Fontaine rules in France on the whole up to the middle of the 19th century, but it is occasionally modified under the influence especially of Italian Renaissance, as shown by the St. Vincent-de-Paul church by Jacob Ignaz Hittorf (1792 1867).
The German nation was naturally qualified, by its peculiar corn bination of naive eagerness for exact research work and dreamy enthusiasm, to acquire both the romanticism and the archaeolog ical novantique. There appeared in the person of J. J. Winkel mann (1717-68) a—for that time—extraordinarily learned stu dent of the history of antique art. Greek classicism was also soon developed in German architecture, and from the beginning of the 19th century received strong impulses. The Brandenburger Tor in Berlin by Karl Gotthard Langhans (1733-1808) is the most typical example of this severe classicism, and, in Karlsruhe, Freidrich Weinbrenner (1766-1826) created a number of artis tically important buildings in the same spirit. Finally, Karl Fried rich Schinkel (1781-1841), a many-talented architect, transposed with uncommon independence and a rich imagination the classical ideals. His best known works are the royal theatre and the old museum in Berlin, the Niccolai church in Potsdam, and the Werder church in Berlin. With the last-mentioned building, Schinkel orig inated the new Gothic style, which afterwards became so popular in church architecture. South Germany possessed in Leo von Klenze a kindred spirit to Schinkel. The best known works by Klenze are the Glyptotheca and the Propylees in Munich and the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg (Leningrad).
In the other countries of Europe the new classicism followed the development in the leading ones. Italian architects, as we have already pointed out, have been actively instrumental in bring ing about the victory of classicism. The architect and engraver Giov. Battista Piranesi (172o-78), with his excellent reproduc tions of the buildings of the antique and the Renaissance periods, has had a great influence on the direction of taste Giuseppe Va diet.. (1762-1839) was active as an archaeologist and architect in a severe classical spirit during the Napoleonic era. At this time the building of theatres received an extraordinary amount of attention in Italy, Teatro della Scala in Milan by Giuseppe Piermarini (1734-1808) and Teatro St. Carlo in Naples by Antonio Nicco lini being striking examples. The most characteristic ecclesiastical buildings of this time are the church in Possango by Antonio Selva (1753-1819), and the St. Francesco di Paolo in Naples by Pietro Bianchini.